Outburst of StressOutburst of Stress

By: Andrew KimBy: Andrew KimSoc 235Soc 235

Erica DixonErica Dixon

Interest

After reading Michael Kimmel’s textbook the “The After reading Michael Kimmel’s textbook the “The Gendered Society” the 4Gendered Society” the 4thth edition. I came upon edition. I came upon reading about gender violence in chapter 13. When reading about gender violence in chapter 13. When reading this chapter, I started to wonder on the causes reading this chapter, I started to wonder on the causes behind the acts of violence.behind the acts of violence.

Many crimes have occurred on violent acts and I Many crimes have occurred on violent acts and I wanted to study more about the development of anger wanted to study more about the development of anger and see if gender domination can be prevented.and see if gender domination can be prevented.

BackgroundMasculinity and Crime: A Quantitative Exploration of Messerschmidt’s HypothesisMasculinity and Crime: A Quantitative Exploration of Messerschmidt’s Hypothesis

By Jessie L. KrienertBy Jessie L. Krienert Place: Diagnosis and Evaluation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska Experiment: Collect data from interviews done by newly incarcerated offenders Method: First the researchers would randomly pick the incarcerated offenders.

Than the researchers would interview the offenders separately about all the non-violent and violent incidents that they can remember. Interviews lasted from 30 minutes to 6 hours depending on the incarcerated offender. After collecting the data the researchers would only analyze male on male committed acts. A total of 1707 events were collected from 508 offenders.

Hypothesis's: The first hypothesis was to see if the offenders would be more likely to be violent when the male has masculine traits and behaviors. The second hypothesis is to see if the traditionally acceptable outlets that are available to support the masculinity, and predicting that events are more likely to be violent when they contain individuals who have few of these appropriate outlets such as marriage, employment, and etc. The final hypothesis is to see if violent situations will be more likely to contain individuals with very masculine characteristics and few acceptable routes for asserting those characteristics.

Result: The more outlets the offenders had such as education, employment, marital status, income the less likely for them to commit a violent act.

DataMasculinity and Crime: A Quantitative Exploration of Messerschmidt’s

Hypothesis

BackgroundPreventing Violence in Low-Income

Communities: Facilitating Residents’ Abilityto Intervene in Neighborhood Problems

By Mary L. Ohmer, Barbara D. Warner, & Elizabeth Beck

Place: Low-income communities in Atlanta, Georgia. Experiment: When applying the Pilot Training Program into low-income

communities. Than observe the behaviors of the participants to see if applying the program would reduce the violence rates in the community.

Method: The procedure for this program needs to be conducted in low-income communities. Second, finding participants that related to the authors ideology of whom might need this program; finding out the participants income, race and ethnicity, marital status, employment and education. The training program included six 2.5 hours weekly sessions, consisting of lectures, discussions, homework, and other methods.

Hypothesis: To see if applying the Pilot Training Program into low-income communities can prevent violence.

Result: The experiment showed that participants that participated showed less violence acts than before the program.

Pilot Training Program The Pilot Training Program created by Mary L. Ohmer, Barbara D.

Warner, and Elizabeth Beck. Three components were to be observed when doing the Pilot Training

Program: (1) Teaching residents consensus organizing strategies for building relationships with other residents and external stakeholders, thus facilitating social capital and ties in the community.(2) Helping residents identify and establish community norms that support pro-social behavior and mutual trust.(3) Teaching residents new skills to enhance their self efficacy and ability to directly intervene in inappropriate neighborhood behaviors in a respectful and supportive manner, using the principles of restorative justice.

The goal for this program was to improve the individuals in the low-income communities with strategies in appropriate behaviors and manners in interactions with fellow individuals in their neighborhoods.

BackgroundContextualizing mental health: gendered experiences

in a Mumbai slum

By: Shubhangi R. Parkar, Johnson Fernandes, and Mitchell G. Weiss Place: Malavani slums in Mumbai Experiment: They wanted to observe the Malavani slums in Mumbai and

examine the afflictions that affect the individual’s emotional well- being and mental health.

Method: Observe the participants in their natural environment and analyze the culture and the routine behaviors and social interactions. The researchers also interviewed 28 participants in depth and out of the 28 people, 10 were men and 18 were women. Interviewed them on what their roles were in their community in the slums.

Result: The communities need to focus on the social and environmental context of the mental health of communities, and not on the psychiatric disorders affecting individuals. Also that the supporters of the slums needed to realize that this community is lacking the experience of social development. The general aspects of life in this community were considered a problem and their concerns with respect to infrastructure and basic services, general environment and facilities.

Data “Contextualizing mental health: gendered experiences

in a Mumbai slum”

Hypothesis

The more outlets an The more outlets an individual has for individual has for stress relief the less stress relief the less gender related gender related dominate their dominate their behavior will be.behavior will be.

Method Subjects:

50 individuals have participated in this research experiment. The ages of the individuals varied from 16-55 years of age. 15 of the participants ranged from the ages of 16-25 (8 males, 7 females), 14 participants ranged from the ages of 26-35 (5 males, 9 females), 12 of the participants ranged from ages 36-45 (8 males, 4 females), and 9 of the participants ranged from the ages 46-55 (4 males, 5 females). The cities that this survey was taken were from Olympia, Lacey, and Shelton in the state of Washington; the areas in the cities where the survey was taken place were local areas such as Safeway, Capital Mall, Target, Bank of America, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Wal-Mart, Costco, Timberland Library, Anytime Fitness, and Subway from all three cities in the state of Washington.

Methods and Procedures:

The participants were given a two paged survey and were required to fill in their answers truthfully. This survey had 22 questions and the purpose for this survey was to see if the measurements of gender domination were related to an individual’s relief of stress levels. For each question participants were allowed to write as much as they pleased and was provided with plenty of writing space between each question. The questions that were asked in the survey are presented below in exact order.

MethodsSurveySurvey

1. Are you a male or female? 2. What is your ethnicity? 3. What is your age? 4. Are you currently employed? 5. What is your average income in a year? 6. What is the furthest education that you have

received?(A) Less than High school(B) High school/ G.E.D.(C) College/graduate school

7. Are you married or single? 8. Do you have children, if so how many? 9. Do you live with your parents, spouse or

independently? 10. If you do have children how many hours a

day do you spend time with them? 11. How many days in a week do you spend

with your family? 12. How many days in a week do you have

family activities? 13. How many hours in a day do you have free

time, including sleeping?

14. How many hours in a day do you do outdoor activities (exercise, gardening, go to movies, sports, etc.)?

15. How many hours in a day do you do indoor activities (playing musical instruments, watching TV, building plane models, etc.)?

16. Do you drink alcohol on a daily basis? 17. Have you ever used verbal abuse (yell,

insult, curse, etc.) to be more dominate to the same sex person?

18. Have you ever used verbal abuse (yell, insult, curse, etc.) to be more dominate to the opposite sex?

19. Have you ever used physical abuse (touch, push, grab, hit, used/threw objects, etc.) to be more dominate to the same sex person?

20. Have you ever used physical abuse (touch, push, grab, hit, used/threw objects, etc.) to be more dominate to the opposite sex?

21. Have you ever used verbal abuse (yell, insult, curse, etc.) to look more dominate in front of other people?

22. Have you ever used physical abuse (touch, push, grab, hit, used/threw objects, etc.) to look more dominate in front of other people?

Method In the survey questions 1, 2, and 3 are to get a general

idea of the participants and place them into the appropriate age group that suited them best.

Questions 4-16 are the stress relief outlets of the participants.

Based on the participants answers to questions 4-16, I wanted to analyze the amount of stress relief outlets the participants had and compare them to questions 17-22 the measurement of domination.

Results

When observing the surveys I have notice that the income of the participants was a main factor to the outlets and measurements of domination levels. With this observation, I decided to average all the participants’ income in each group and observe if the amount of outlets determines the measurement of domination.

Result

Participants in the age group of 16-25: The results from this group was much The results from this group was much different compared to the results from the other age groups.different compared to the results from the other age groups.

Average income in this group was $5,000 and majority of the participants were still Average income in this group was $5,000 and majority of the participants were still in high school. in high school.

Rated high on the outlet portion of the survey and all participants admitted of using Rated high on the outlet portion of the survey and all participants admitted of using verbal abuse to the opposite and same sex individuals in society, but only 4 verbal abuse to the opposite and same sex individuals in society, but only 4 admitted to physical abuse. admitted to physical abuse.

When observing the surveys that the 4 participants filled in, they had different When observing the surveys that the 4 participants filled in, they had different answers compared to the others in their category on question number 9, Do you live answers compared to the others in their category on question number 9, Do you live with your parents, spouse or independently? The 4 participants answered that they with your parents, spouse or independently? The 4 participants answered that they were living independently, making them the providers for themselves and not were living independently, making them the providers for themselves and not nurtured like the others that fit in the 16-25 years of age group. nurtured like the others that fit in the 16-25 years of age group.

With this group of participants the hypothesis is only partly true. The reason for With this group of participants the hypothesis is only partly true. The reason for this conclusion for this group of participants is because they are simple not the this conclusion for this group of participants is because they are simple not the main providers of their households leaving results to vary.main providers of their households leaving results to vary.

Results

Participants in the age groups of 26-35, 36-45, 46-55: With With these groups, my hypothesis did succeed. When averaging out these groups, my hypothesis did succeed. When averaging out each groups income, participants that had a high income each groups income, participants that had a high income showed more outlets and less domination, but people with showed more outlets and less domination, but people with lower income showed less outlets and rated more in the lower income showed less outlets and rated more in the domination portion of the survey.domination portion of the survey.

Conclusion The hypothesis of the lack of outlets for stress relieve can

measure ones domination levels in society was correct in certain age groups based off my experiment.

Males have a bigger issues with gender domination. Some males feel as if it is necessary to act violent towards others to prove their masculinity. With some males lacking with certain outlets such as education, marital status, income, and etc. may cause them to outburst with aggression, violence, or domination towards others as a supplement with the outlets that he lacks.

Women and gender domination, it can simply mean a statement for women to prove that they can be equally tough, powerful, leaders similar to males. Women could believe that they must act tough in front of others so that they can be accepted just by acting violent verbally and/or physically.

Conclusion Although my hypothesis came to be true in certain

age groups, I know the fact that there can always be improvements with my experiment, such as I could have found more participants in other locations, measure different outlets of stress, or even different age groups.

If I was to conduct this experiment again in another location with different people with different backgrounds, I personally do not believe that I would get the same results. Every community is different based on the influences in the institutions in their society and based on that no result would be the same.

Conclusion

I believe that this study can help open the minds of individuals in the reasons towards their acts in domination behaviors. With this confrontation hopefully this study can help other researchers in their observations and analysis with the measurements of gender domination and stress outlets.

The further we get into facing the issues of gender domination in violence, the closer we as a whole would become more equalized in society.

ReferencesReferences

Kimmel, Michael. 2008. The Gendered Society, Third Edition. New York, New York. Oxford.

Krienert, J. L. (2003). Masculinity and Crime: A Quantitative Exploration of Messerschmidt’s Hypothesis. Retrieved July 27, 2010 from

http://www.sociology.org/content/vol7.2/01_krienert.html

Ohmer, M. L., Warner, B. D., & Beck, E. (2010). Preventing Violence in Low-Income Communities: Facilitating Residents’ Ability to

Intervene in Neighborhood Problems. 37(2):161-181, 21.

Parker, S. R., Fernandes, J., & Weiss, M. G. (2003). Contextualizing Mental Health: Gendered Experiences in a Mumbai Slum. 10(3):291-308, 18.